Muslim and Croatian Leaders Approve Federation for Bosnia

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Trying to save the Dayton peace accord, Secretary of State Warren Christopher announced today that two Balkan leaders had finally agreed to create a federation to jointly govern Muslims and Croats in half of Bosnia.

The two Presidents, Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia and Franjo Tudjman of Croatia, have pledged many times that politicians under their control would join together in a Muslim-Croat federation.

The federation was created on paper two years ago by the Clinton Administration, as a counterbalance to the Bosnian Serbs. But despite Washington's pressure it has consistently failed to emerge as a working government.

The federation is meant to control about half of Bosnian territory, and a Bosnian Serb republic the other half. Under the Dayton accord's vision of preserving a single nation, these two substates would in turn be united under a newly created national presidency, assembly, court and central bank.

Mr. Christopher acknowledged at a news conference that promises had been made before on the federation, but he said today's agreement was the first in which a set date -- August 31 -- had been established for its formal creation.

''I don't shy away from the fact that this is a work in progress,'' Mr. Christopher said after meetings with Mr. Izetbegovic, Mr. Tudjman and the President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia. ''We're making progress but we have to work at it.''

Mr. Christopher met with the three Balkan leaders today in the third of a series of meetings designed to smooth out problems in the Dayton agreement. He is scheduled to visit Sarajevo on Thursday.

Elections for the varied layers of government set up in the Dayton plan are scheduled in Bosnia on Sept. 14.

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The State Department, through frequent visits of high officials to Bosnia and head-to-head talks like the recent White House meeting between President Clinton and Mr. Tudjman, has been working overtime to salvage elections that are already wrapped in confusion, manipulation and intimidation.

The impending elections, which are to occur only six weeks before the American presidential election, are adding to the pressures on the State Department to try and move the federation beyond the realm of fiction.

The federation is supposed to have an integrated military command and economic institutions to manage taxes, investment and economic aid.

American diplomats said that today's agreement requires that Herceg-Bosnia, the self-governing entity that the Bosnian Croats have established within Bosnia -- and which Croatian nationalists hope can be integrated with Croatia -- would be dismantled by Aug. 31.

John Kornblum, the American State Department official responsible for the day-to-day policy on Bosnia, said: ''The real point is not to argue whether these people are truly enthusiastic. We know they are not. But we never give up.''

State Department officials said that operational arrangements for military protection of voters in Bosnia on election day were also discussed for the first time, in addition to the federation agreement.

Mr. Kornblum said he expected ''tens of thousands'' of voters who were displaced by ethnic cleansing operations during the war to go to their original neighborhoods to vote on election day. Election planners have said these people will need military protection. The Supreme Allied Commander, General George Joulwan, was at the talks here today to discuss what his forces were prepared to do, diplomats said.

A version of this article appears in print on August 15, 1996, on Page A00005 of the National edition with the headline: Muslim and Croatian Leaders Approve Federation for Bosnia. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe